Through its strong camera, the French marine surveillance plane was wandering in the Balati Sea.
Then the long -range Atlantique 2 plane on a new task of NATO turned its high -tech outlook into another goal, and another after that, after more than five hours in a patrol, the group of crushing sensors had come out of the largest part of the largest part of the Baltic – from Germany In the West to Estonia in the northeast, on the border with Russia.
Just attending the journey in the sky over the strategic sea last week, along with the military ships that carry out water on the water, also send an unambiguous message: the NATO coalition collides with its caution against the suspected attempts to sabotage the energy cables and underwater data. Crisscross Baltic, motivated by an increased catalog of accidents.
“We will do everything we can to make sure that we are fighting, and that we are able to see what is happening and then take the following steps to make sure that this does not happen again. It is called the “Baltic Sea”, to protect underwater infrastructure of the economic luxury of the Baltic countries.
Power cables, communications and gas pipelines link the nine countries that contain beaches on the Baltic, which is almost a relatively shallow sea. There are some examples of the Balticconnecty pipeline 152 km (94 miles) that carry gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic cable that connects energy networks in Sweden and Germany, and 1173 km (729 miles) C- Lion1 Cable between Finland and Germany.
Why are the cables important?
The pipes and cables below the sea surface help energy economies, keeping homes warm and connecting billions of people. More than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optical cables – more than enough to expand to the moon and return – oceans and seas in the world, according to TelegeGraphy, which tracks and plans for biological networks. Cables are usually the width of the garden hose. But 97 % of the world’s communications, including trillion dollars from financial transactions, pass through it every day.
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As for the news that affects Canada and around the world, he participated in the urgent news alerts that were delivered directly when it occurs.
“In the past two months alone, we have seen damage to a cable linking Lithuania and Sweden, another linking Germany and Finland, and recently, a number of cables that link Estonia and Finland. Investigations in all these cases are still ongoing. Rot said on January 14:” There is a reason for great concern. “
At least 11 cables of the Baltic Sea since October 2023 – the latter is the optical fiber cable that connects Latvia and the Swedish Island, which is torn on Sunday. Although cable operators note that damage under the surface of the sea cables is common, the frequency of accidents and their concentration of doubts in the Baltic exceeds that the damage may be deliberate.
There are also fears that Russia can target cables as part of a broader campaign of the so -called “hybrid war” to destabilize European countries that help Ukraine to defend themselves against the comprehensive invasion of Moscow since 2022.
Without the blaming specifically Russia, Root said: “The hybrid means sabotage. The hybrid means electronic attacks. The hybrid sometimes means even assassination attacks and attempts, and in this case, this means hitting our infrastructure under our sea surface.”
The Finnish police suspect that the eagle, an oil tanker, affected the power cable 2, and other communications cables linking Finland and Estonia on December 25. exports.
The Finnish authorities seized the carrier shortly after leaving Russian port and seemed to have cut the cables by pulling its anchor. Finnish investigators claim that the ship has left a long pastry track of about 100 km (62 miles) on the sea floor.
Intelligence agencies doubts
He told many Western intelligence officials, speaking on the condition that his identity was not disclosed due to the sensitive nature of their work, to Associated Press that the recent damage was probably accidental, and it seems that it caused the ships that were poorly maintained and its crew badly.
One of the senior AP intelligence officials told the ship’s records and mechanical failure with the vessels of the ship was among the “multiple indicators” that indicate away from Russian sabotage. The official said that the Russian cables were also cut. Another Western official, who is also talking about an unknown to discuss intelligence issues, said that Russia had sent a bowl to collect the intelligence to the site of one cable rupture to investigate the damage.
The Washington Post has first reported the emerging consensus between US and European security services, which are likely to have caused marine accidents into recent damage.
Cable operators are advised to be careful
The European Cable Association, which represents the owners of cables and the operators, noticed in November after reporting errors on the Baltic Sea link, which, on average, was damaged by a cable below the surface of the sea somewhere in the world every three days. In the waters of northern Europe, the main causes of damage are hunting commercial fish or vessels.
In the rupture of the optical fiber cable on Sunday linking Latvia and Sweden, the Swedish authorities detained a ship full of the marine heading to South America with a shipment of fertilizers.
Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company that owns Vezhen, said that any damage was unintended and that the ship’s crew was discovered while moving into the very bad weather as its left anchor seemed to have dragged on the sea floor.
The mission of the “Baltic Sea” from NATO
The coalition is deploying warships, naval aircraft, and marine drones for the task of providing “monitoring and deterrence”.
On a French naval monitoring trip, the 14 -member crossed crew ships that they discovered from the air against the ship lists that were ordered to see.
“If we see some suspicious activities of ships as a sea – for example, ships at a very low or a marina in a position should not be at this time – so this is something we can see.” Lieutenant Alban, who was blocked by the French military for security reasons.
“We can take a very closer look with our sensors to see what is happening.”
I informed the burrows from London. AP Jill Lawles journalists in London, David Kleber in Washington and Vicelin Toskov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.
